Organic chicken farm coming to Branch County

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The Daily Reporter - Coldwater, MI

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Posted May. 16, 2013 at 8:33 AM

Posted May. 16, 2013 at 8:33 AM

Coldwater, Mich.

By Don Reid

dwreid@aol.com

GOSHEN, Ind. — Miller Amish Country Poultry has filed an application to build a massive broiler growing facility for over a quarter of a million chickens in Noble Township near the Indiana-Michigan state line.

The application filed in April with the Michigan Department of Agriculture indicated the company will construct eight 60 by 660 foot "broiler barns."

Mark Tilbury, live production manager for the company, said four barns will be constructed first and will employ a manager and three to four employees. The initial building investment would be around $1.7 million and could reach $4.4 million.

Miller has a large chicken processing plant less then 6 miles from the farm on Indiana S.R. 327 south of Orland, Ind. Tilbury said this is one reason for the location, which will produce organic chickens. The feed will come from a new organic certified mill in Saranac.

Having the plant close will help with the "animal welfare certification" for the operation.

Tilbury, a Michigan State University graduate, said it takes just six weeks to raise a bird to 5 pounds for slaughter. The Orland plant processes between 450,000 to 480,000 chickens a week.

The company hatches its own chicks and originally placed them primarily on Amish family farms. It has since moved to larger operations and now has more than 100 growers raising between 10,000 and 240,000 birds per farm throughout the region.

The company also will construct a building measutring 60 by 48 feet which will be 10 feet deep in order to hold the manure produced by 252,800 chickens. Neighbors have expressed concerns about the smell. Tilbury said unlike cow or pig manure, chicken manure is dry. It will be composted in the building and heated to more than 134 degrees, which will drive off the nitrogen to cut the ammonia smell.

Tilbury has three farmers who have signed letters of intent to take the compost for use on their fields as fertilizer.

The Miller family began farming in Elkhart County, Ind. in 1942, moving into ducks and turkeys. In 1974 they began in the chicken business.

The company promotes that, "The birds are raised inside naturally-ventilated, curtain-sided houses and are free to roam on open floors. They are fed an all-vegetable, drug-free diet and are hormone- and antibiotic-free."

Tilbury said while the numbers of chickens processed seems large, Miller is the smallest of the country’s chicken producers, accounting for only one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. market.

Tilbury said the company has yet to decide which Noble Township road will access the farm facility. Both Greenfield, which is also known as Steuben County Road 800 North and is the state line, and Whipple Road to the north are dirt and not in good shape.

Page 2 of 2 - Michigan’s Right to Farm Act does not allow local control of farms. The law reads, "A farm or farm operation shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if the farm or farm operation alleged to be a nuisance conforms to generally accepted agricultural and management practices according to policy determined by the Michigan commission of agriculture."

Tilbury said all the company’s operations and contractors in this state comply with the generally-accepted agricultural and management practices (GAAM) certification.